Priscilla Presley brings 'Elvis and Me' to Cabot in Beverly Friday

Priscilla Presley will talk about her long history with her late ex-husband during a two-hour presentation moderated by arts and entertainment journalist Joyce Kulhawik.

Jim Sullivan / Correspondent

She was the child bride of the most famous rock ‘n’ roll singer in history. Married in 1967, they had a daughter the following year, divorced in 1973, and four years later, on the verge of a yet another comeback tour, he died, leaving a legacy that’s only grown over time.

Friday night at the Cabot Theatre in Beverly, Priscilla Presley will talk about all that and more during a two-hour presentation moderated by Joyce Kulhawik called “Elvis and Me: An Evening with Priscilla Presley.”

Why is she doing this now?

“To be honest,” Presley says, “there have been so many books out on Elvis Presley, 800 at last count, and I read through a lot of them and there’s so much misinformation, so much altered information, so many untruths and so many myths about him, I figured I’m at a time in my life where I feel comfortable with people and in front of audiences. I want to put the truth out there.

"It also made me realize that at this time in my life – it’s not like we’re getting any younger – I don’t want anyone else writing my book like they’ve done with Elvis," she says.

Presley, now 72, actually did a write a book, also called “Elvis and Me,” that was published in 1985. But, she says, “that was just after his death. I’ve had a lot more experience now, of course, with life. I’ve had a lot more experience with people. I’ve had a lot more experience with fans. In the beginning, they were not my friends. I was hated for marrying him and I was hated for divorcing him.”

I spoke with Presley on the phone from her Los Angeles home last week.

Wicked Local: A singer named Mojo Nixon did this song “Elvis is Everywhere” back in 1987, ten years after his death and three decades after that, it still seems to be true.

Priscilla Presley: Amazing, isn’t it? Pretty overwhelming. It brings a huge smile to my face, a pounding of my heart to know that he is still beloved. I don’t think there’s a celebrity that 40 years later is selling arenas out all through Europe and Australia. [Note: she’s talking about a tour in which the 54-piece Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as members of Elvis’ band play live, while a giant Elvis on screen sings along.]

His dream was to sing rock ‘n’ roll with a good orchestra. He was ahead of his time. This is truly magnificent. It’s something he never in his wildest dreams ever thought that would happen to him, because at 40 he thought that maybe he should leave the circuit – touring – and find something else that he should be doing and not appearing as a rock and roller. I think he probably would have been singing gospel [had he lived].

WL: What do you think you know now that you didn’t when you wrote the book?

PP: I wish I had the wisdom then that I do today. I think I would have understood so much more about the man, about the artist, about him and with his music. Even though he confided in me, talked with me and shared things with me he never shared with anyone else -- and which I will not reveal in public -- but there are other things [I will discuss] and clear things up.

WL: Is it difficult for you to separate the man you knew from the artist?

PP: No. I was very fortunate that when I met him so young, that’s who I saw, the artist, his music, his movies, that’s who I was exposed to. I saw “The Ed Sullivan Show.” I knew he was popular. I liked him as all teenagers did. He represented someone that gave us music outside of our parents’ music. Of course, he changed the culture. But then I got to know him as the human being that he was.

WL: I’ve got to ask, because this has been around since his funeral: There are people who think he faked his death.

PP: Well, I was there. And many people were. It was an open casket. There’s no doubt that that was Elvis Presley. But there were many people who couldn’t believe it, people who didn’t want to believe it. Yes, there’s that myth out there, but I can only say I know he’s passed and it would be ridiculous for him to have faked his death.

WL: Of course, both you and Elvis are staples of the tabloids. Do you react to any of the stories?

PP: Yes, I get furious. The Star and the Enquirer, oh my God, I think they’re the bane of anyone's existence that’s famous. It’s so mean-spirited and it’s just so wrong.

WL: Do you sue or just let it go?

PP: I have [sued] in the past, but it gives them even more attention. I’ve learned through others who have hit the rag mags is it makes it even more relevant. You just wait for the next week to come out because that old saying is: You suffer when you’re going through it, but next week it’s somebody else [laughs].

WL: I read that you were a developing an Elvis show for Broadway.

PP: Well, I was. I’m so busy doing other things I haven’t been able to concentrate on it. Maybe in the future, but right now I’m touring with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra again this year in Europe and again next year. And doing this show, “Elvis and Me,” has taken up so much of my time -- which I love because it’s brought Elvis forward again, because the albums [with the orchestra] “The Wonder of You” and "If I Can Dream" went triple platinum and that put him back on the map.

WL: You’re doing something with HBO aren’t you?

PP: A documentary. It’s called “Elvis Presley: The Searcher” and I’m the executive producer of that along with Jerry Schilling. It’ll be out this coming spring. It’s all ready to go, four hours - two hours, two nights. The gist of it is the journey of Elvis Presley from the very beginning, starting in Tupelo, Mississippi, and going to Memphis. He is so much more than just a musician or a singer. There’s footage of him you’ve never seen before and you see the human side to Elvis Presley. It is so touching. People [who’ve seen a screening] walked out with tears going “Oh my God, I never knew this!”

WL: This “Elvis and Me” show, is it multi-media?

PP: No. I don’t want it to be. This is an intimate conversation with my audience. And I, of course, bring home movies and photos, but I want it to be intimate conversation with the audience asking questions.

WL: Do you ever get impertinent questioners?

PP: You know, it’s been so respectful. And this is a time with social media, where people let it all out, but the audiences have been really good.

WL: In “Elvis and Me” do you view him through rose-colored glasses?

PP: I don’t. It’s really balanced. He represented everything to me, but we all have flaws and he had flaws and people know he had flaws. How could he not? He was a human being.

WL: Not long before he died that infamous book written by three of his bodyguards, “Elvis: What Happened?” came out, exposing a lot of Elvis’s excesses and compulsions. It painted a pretty grim picture. Did he read it? Did it have an effect on him?

PP: I think he was going through a tough time in his life before that book, but that certainly weighed on his mind. These are three guys, they were angry and I think they had some regrets writing that book. That’s what happens when you’re angry. You say things and you want to reveal things and that was a big blow to all of us. There were things in there that shouldn’t have been in there that were blown out of proportion, things taken out of context.

WL: I interviewed Elvis’s drummer DJ Fontana a while back and he said Elvis used to go incognito and sneak into the back of the theater when certain Elvis impersonators performed and he loved it.

PP: I never saw him do that. But maybe there were times he did that in Vegas when I wasn’t there. I honestly didn’t think there were that many Elvis impersonators during Elvis' lifetime. We call them tribute artists. To be honest, [watching them] it’s a little uncomfortable for my daughter and I. I know that they serve a purpose, there’s no doubt about that, but I just leave that area alone.

WL: I actually saw the real Elvis last night, sort of. I was watching “Blade Runner 2049” and there he was, two-thirds of the way in, a hologram singing “Can’t Help Falling in Love.”

PP: [laughs] That was our [Elvis Presley Enterprises] licensing department. The whole idea of a hologram has been going around for the past few years, but nothing has really come up that we feel is appropriate enough for us to say yes to doing it. This uses his image. I thought it was done in good fun and pretty good taste. And it was brief.

WL: What’s the most ridiculous thing Elvis Presley Enterprises has been approached to license?

PP: Oh my God, an Elvis movie with zombies! It would be the absolute wrong thing to do.

WL: In the early ’80s my local liquor store briefly sold Elvis Wine and I bought two cases at $3 a bottle. His manager, Col. Tom Parker, wrote on the bottle that “although Elvis didn’t drink wine, if he did this is the wine he would drink.” It was horrible.